Educating the Gifted.

The very subject of giftedness is fraught with contradiction and controversy. On the one hand, we often encounter misunderstanding, envy, and perceived elitism—and on the other, admiration, dependency, and respect. Little wonder that our K–12 education system has not yet determined how best to nurture extraordinary individuals so that they can become extraordinary contributors to society—and feel rewarded in doing so. Unfortunately, it is not simply the gifted who are underserved by most of our nation’s 14,000 public school systems; that group is just more acutely neglected, along with the economically less fortunate, than the nation’s student population as a whole.